When the International Maritime Organization (IMO) meets in London this week, the stakes are high. The IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) plans to adopt an initial greenhouse gas strategy, the first of its kind for the shipping sector whose annual CO2 emissions are slightly higher than the annual emissions of Germany. This means that the 72nd session of the MEPC (MEPC72) from April 9-13, 2018, will not only show how international maritime transport is going to deal with its increasing emissions trend but will provide insights into Paris Agreement implementation.

When the world united around the historic Paris climate agreement, in 2015, the message was clear: It’s unfair to pass the burden of climate change to future generations.

We now need to put words into action. This week, leaders from 20 of the largest economies are meeting in Hamburg to find solutions to global challenges. Climate change will be front and center.

As the co-chairs of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC), we want to accelerate climate action and reaffirm our commitment to carbon pricing. The discussions in Germany are a great opportunity to keep the momentum going.

Launched during the Paris climate talks, the CPLC now consists of 30 governments and over 140 businesses, all fighting for a common cause: to advocate for the pricing of carbon emissions across the world. We are calling for bold leadership from everyone – governments, companies, academia and civil society. The CPLC provides a forum for these groups to show collaborative leadership on carbon pricing.

We are witnessing a pivotal moment in a decades-long effort to combat climate change. Last year in Paris, world leaders came together for the first time to commit to keeping global warming below 2°C. With the Paris Agreement in force and negotiators at COP22 in Marrakesh teasing out the details of implementing the Agreement, countries are developing their action plans (or Nationally Determined Contributions, NDCs) to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Part of this is looking at how carbon assets could be traded across borders.

By advancing towards our ambitious GHG reduction target – 37,5 % of 1990 levels in 2030 – Québec demonstrates that proactive States and Regions are part of the solution to fight climate change. To address this challenge, we have decided to set up a carbon market linked with California through the Western Climate Initiative in 2014. In 2017, our carbon market will also be linked with Ontario. Last August, Québec and Mexico signed a joint statement to affirm their desire to widen their collaboration on cap-and-trade. Jurisdictions have many options when it comes to earmark their carbon-pricing revenues; Quebec’s choice, to entirely reinvest the revenues of its carbon market in climate actions, shows that we really understand the urgency of acting immediately and boldly. Thanks to CPLC’s leadership and knowledge-sharing initiatives, we now have an additional opportunity to share our stories and learn from each-other’s experiences with carbon pricing.

The remarkable pace at which nations of the world have ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change gives us all hope. It signals the world is ready to take the actions we need to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. We know, however, that delivering on Paris comes with a high price tag, and that we need to help countries not just transition toward renewable energy but unlock the finance needed to get there.

Negotiators in Paris last December achieved a previously unattainable consensus among all countries — large and small, industrialized and developing — on a target for minimizing climate change.

They agreed to hold planetary warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, which can only happen by drastically cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

Adhering to the target requires a de facto energy revolution that transforms economies and societies by weaning the world from dependence on fossil fuels. The magnitude of the task means strategies and spending on a scale far exceeding previous efforts.

​Many of my compatriots in Poland, where over 90 percent of power generation comes from burning coal, are concerned that the EU climate policy is a risky outlier.

​They worry that the EU Emissions Trading System may expose domestic industry to unfair competitition and cause companies to move production to countries where emission costs are lower, something called “leakage”.

The two reports recently released by the World Bank may change this perception.

Feike Sijbesma is CEO of Royal DSM, a health, nutrition, and materials company that has evolved from its original purpose (it was established by the Dutch government in 1902 to mine coal) into a science-based company that develops sustainable materials. It takes its name from the original Nederlandse Staatsmijnen, or Dutch State Mines.